ADC NCA and OSS

[OPENSTEP]

(ok, this isn't a rant against ADC NDA specifically but developer NDAs in general...figured it was time to rant given the Tiger ADC lawsuites from drunkenblog...)

<rant>

I have access to some cool things. Not access to the latest and greatest, but access to some cool stuff nontheless. Only problem is, it's covered by Apple NDA through ADC EULAs and/or WWDC agreements.

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand why Apple needs to enforce ADC NDAs for Tiger seeding. Hell, I've had to do real work for all seeding access I've gotten. That issue is moot, though, for my rant...

Prerelease NDAs run exactly contrary to the desires for open source software. It's impossible to do work within an open source environment since legally the OSS project can't divulge certain interfaces. OK, for example...

OpenDocument is nearing being a completed open standard. Righteous.

In Tiger there is a feature called Spotlight that is coming out that can index documents.

Wouldn't it be cool if Spotlight could index OpenDocument formatted stuff on release? Unfortunately, to develop those spotlight filters would require including (and calling) header files for Spotlight that are under Apple NDA.

As a result, no source code that uses pre-release headers can be truly "open sourced" in the sense that the code can be made publicly available under a regular OSS license. Anyone who looks at the source needs to be covered by Apple NDA due to usage of prerelease APIs.

Anyway, I guess the crux of my rant is that although OSS could be working on future Apple technologies, legally we can't do so in an open source fashion. So instead of supporting up and coming technologies, I wind up doing nothing instead of going through the hassle of setting up a separate secure repository to which I can guarantee only validated ADC members have access. That additional licensing restriction isn't really compatible with OSS licenses.

The only option OSS developers have is to work in private until full release and public disclosure of the APIs which is all fine and dandy and, from the perspective of Apple's need to maintain technical platform superiority, completely understandable. It's just unfortunate that the NDAs enforce a lack of ability to collaborate that is at the core of OSS.

</rant>

ed

[jakeOSX]

sounds like what apple should do is release certain bits of info for public use, so that you could write programs and have them ready.

or, just get the main contributors of a program under the NDA, have them work until they can release and presto.

or, just send ed some beer.